Over his five-decade-plus career, the "Strega Nona" author contributed to more than 270 books

Schools were closed March 13 to reduce the risk of spread of the coronavirus, and there is no plan to reopen them by the end of the current school year in June.

Many retailers are eager to hear more details from the province about when and how they should reopen after weeks of being closed to the public. The next phase of recovery is expected to start Friday.

Green Depots will begin to reopen across the province on Monday, according to the Multi-Materials Stewardship Board, though dates and hours of operation may vary between sites. 

The vessel, formerly known as the Edmonton Queen, got skewered by its own moorings last month as the icy North Saskatchewan River began to thaw.

This rapid and efficient method to prepare highly purified recombinant adeno-associated viruses (rAAVs) is based on binding of negatively charged rAAV capsids to an anion-exchange resin that is pH dependent.

Plasmid DNA is prepared from the recombinant shuttle vector pLD53.SCAB/A-B created by cloning of the A and B homology arms for two-step bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) engineering. To confirm that the A-box and B-box arms have been successfully incorporated into pLD53.SCAB, the pattern of enzyme digestion of the modified plasmid is compared with that of the unmodified pLD53.SCAB. Once the shuttle vector is shown to carry the proper sequences, it is ready for transfer into the BAC host.

The 700-bp A homology arm (A-box) and the 700-bp B homology arm (B-box) are amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using purified bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) DNA as template for two-step BAC engineering. The resulting A-box PCR product contains an AscI site at its 5' end (the 5' primer incorporates an AscI site, and the 3' primer does not incorporate any restriction sites). The B-box PCR product contains an XmaI site at its 3' end (the 5' primer does not incorporate any restriction sites, and the 3' primer incorporates an XmaI site). The amplification products are then digested with the appropriate restriction endonucleases to render them suitable for cloning into the shuttle vector.

In two-step bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) engineering, a single plasmid is introduced into the BAC-carrying cell lines. The shuttle vector pLD53.SCAB (or pLD53.SCAEB) carries the recA gene and the R6K origin, which requires the protein to replicate. PIR2 cells, expressing , are typically used for the amplification of the vector and maintain about 15 copies/cell of the donor vector, which is relatively stable in this host.

Schools in western Quebec are getting ready to welcome students back next week, but things will look a lot different — and classrooms will likely be far from full. 

45 Chinese nationals in Nepal demand flights to go home, throw stones  Hindustan TimesView Full coverage on Google News

Karina LeBlanc was returning home from her second hospital visit after giving birth to her first child, only this time she would have to spend 14 days in self-isolation after doctors feared she contracted COVID-19 during her stay.

New England head coach Bill Belichick said not taking a quarterback in the Patriots' first post-Tom Brady draft "wasn't by design."

Toronto officials reported 180 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, a figure that represents a dip when compared to the more than 200 cases announced daily this week. 

Living on a 10-acre plot of land 100 kilometres outside Toronto, David Stevens thought he and his family were well prepared to ride out the COVID-19 quarantine. But after a call from his mother, he learned that even the best laid plans can go wrong.

Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest rose sharply in April, government data showed on Friday, as the coronavirus outbreak keeps many environmental enforcers out of the field and the country prepares to deploy troops to fight illegal logging.

A normal draft year would see NHL scouts and executives spend the spring crisscrossing Europe and North America collecting information. The circumstances surrounding a 2020 draft and the COVID-19 pandemic, however, aren't anything resembling normal.

Sofina Foods plants in Burlington and Mississauga have each had an employee test positive.

Rome Newsroom, Apr 30, 2020 / 11:45 am (CNA).- After eight weeks without funerals, Italian families will be able finally to gather together to mourn and pray at funeral Masses for the victims of the coronavirus starting May 4.

In Milan, the largest city in Italy’s coronavirus epicenter, priests are preparing for an influx of funeral requests in the coming weeks in the Lombardy region, where 13,679 have died.

Fr. Mario Antonelli, who oversees liturgies on behalf of the Archdiocese of Milan, told CNA that archdiocesan leadership met April 30 to coordinate guidelines for Catholic funerals as more than 36,000 people remain positive for COVID-19 in their region.

“I am moved, thinking of so many dear people who have wanted [a funeral] and still desire one,” Fr. Antonelli said April 30.

He said that the church in Milan is ready like the Good Samaritan to “pour oil and wine on the wounds of many who have suffered the death of a loved one with the terrible agony of not being able to say goodbye and embrace.”

A Catholic funeral is “not just a solemn farewell from loved ones,” the priest explained, adding that it expresses a pain like childbirth. “It is the cry of pain and loneliness that becomes a song of hope and communion with the desire for an everlasting love.”

Funerals in Milan will occur on an individual basis with no more than 15 people in attendance, as required by “phase two” of the Italian government’s coronavirus measures. 

Priests are asked to notify local authorities when a funeral is scheduled to take place and ensure that social distancing measures defined by the diocese are followed throughout the liturgy. 

Milan is home to the Ambrosian rite, the Catholic liturgical rite named for St. Ambrose, who led the diocese in the 4th century.

“According to the Ambrosian rite, the funeral liturgy includes three ‘stations’: the visit / blessing of the body with the family; community celebration (with or without Mass); and burial rites at the cemetery,” Antonelli explained. 

“Trying to reconcile the sense of the liturgy … and the sense of civic responsibility, we ask the priests to refrain from visiting the family of the deceased to bless the body,” he said.

While Milan archdiocese is limiting priests from the traditional blessing of the body in the home of the family, the funeral Mass and burial rites will be able to take place at a church or “preferably” at a cemetery, Antonelli added. 

During the nearly two months without Masses and funerals, dioceses in northern Italy have been maintaining telephone lines for grieving families with spiritual counsel and psychological services. In Milan, the service is called “Hello, is this an angel?” and is operated by priests and religious who spend time on the phone with the sick, the mourning, and the lonely. 

Aside from funerals, public Masses will still not be allowed throughout Italy under the government’s May 4 coronavirus restrictions. As Italy eases its lockdown, it remains unclear when public Masses will be allowed by the Italian government.

Italian bishops have been critical of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s latest coronavirus measures, announced on April 26, saying that they “arbitrarily exclude the possibility of celebrating Mass with the people."

According to the prime minister’s April 26 announcement, the easing of lockdown measures will allow retail stores, museums, and libraries to reopen beginning May 18 and restaurants, bars, and hair salons June 1.

Movement between Italian regions, within regions, and within cities and towns is still prohibited except under strict cases of necessity.

In a letter April 23, Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti of Perugia, the president of the Italian bishops' conference, wrote that “the time has come to resume the celebration of the Sunday Eucharist, and church funerals, baptisms and all the other sacraments, naturally following those measures necessary to guarantee security in the presence of more people in public places.”

Professional experience as a teacher and personal relationships on the field equipped one long-term worker to teach at a start-up English-speaking school.

BACKGROUND:

Emergency department (ED) care processes and environments impose unique challenges for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The implementation of patient- and family-centered care (PFCC) emerges as a priority for optimizing ED care. In this article, as part of a larger study, we explore PFCC in the context of ASD. Our aims were to examine how elements of PFCC were experienced and applied relative to ED care for children with ASD.

A team of dentists and volunteers recently visited an orphanage in the Odessa province to fix 75 young smiles.

A Fin24 user who was forced into early retirement is struggling to pay credit card debt amounting to over R109 000. An expert responds.

MAY is normally a busy month behind the scenes for Gareth Chalmers and the ongoing uncertainty around sport hasn’t changed that a huge amount.

Big Zuu is headed back out on tour - but not as we know it.

There's a new focus on getting more training to early-childhood educators, but there's a dearth of information about what constitutes a high-quality, teacher-preparation program.

In this lesson, 7th grade English/language arts teacher Emily Park-Friend takes her students through a three-step interview activity.

Two high-powered N.Y. officials have put out a blueprint for overhauling teaching in the state, aiming for more-coherent policies for the profession.

Many patient and family demographic characteristics are well-known risk factors for nonurgent emergency-department use. No previous study has examined the primary care physician perspective on parental decisions regarding specific nonurgent emergency-department visits by children.

When discussing specific instances when families in their practices sought nonurgent care for children in the emergency department, physicians believed that parents acted appropriately. Neither parents nor primary care physicians saw nonurgent emergency-department visits as a significant enough problem to warrant change. (Read the full article)

Studies of the association between process and outcome measures of the quality of acute asthma care for children have been mixed. These studies are limited by small, single-institution settings or by examining the association at the aggregate level.

This first multicenter analysis of the process-outcome association in acute asthma care for children revealed no association. Because the validity of process measures depends on association with outcomes, further study is needed before implementing existing process measures as performance metrics. (Read the full article)

Hepatitis A infection causes severe disease among adolescents and adults. Hepatitis A vaccination (HepA) is recommended universally at 1 year, with vaccination through 18 years based on risk or desire for protection.

This is the first study to evaluate adolescent HepA coverage in the United States using provider-reported vaccination data. HepA coverage was low among adolescents, leaving a large population susceptible to hepatitis A infection maturing into adulthood. (Read the full article)

Bronchiolitis is the most common cause for hospital admission in patients aged <1 year. Hypoxia is a common reason for admission. Despite a multitude of studies looking at various treatment strategies, no clear benefit has been found.

With oxygen therapy being the main therapeutic option, home oxygen offers a novel way to manage bronchiolitis. This study shows that home oxygen is a safe and effective way to decrease hospital admissions in a select group of patients. (Read the full article)

Recent studies report that overall computed tomography utilization in the emergency department has continued to rise. Increased computed tomography use is concerning because of the association with radiation exposure and the potential risk of radiation-induced malignancy, which is highest in children.

Our data showed no overall increase in computed tomography utilization through 2010. In areas where alternative non–radiation-based modalities were options, there were decreased trends in computed tomography use and increased use of potential alternative non–radiation-based modalities. (Read the full article)